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BY 

R. N. BASKIN 

n 
TO 

Certain Statements 

BY 
O. F. WHITNEY 

IN HIS • .• 

HISTORY OF UTAH 

PUBLISHED IN 1916 



■005^5 



'Sh^ mitQ House. 




PORTER ROCKWELL 



CONTENTS. 



Whitney's Aspersions 3-4 

Excerpts Relating to Mormon Battalion: 

Jesse C. Little's Appeal, as Agent of the Latter-day Saints, to 

President Polk for Assistance 4-5 

Capt. Allen's Circular Granting to the Mormon Emigrants the Priv- 
ilege of Forming a Battalion 5 

Resolution of the emigrants, expressive of their gratitude to President 

Polk 6 

Reference to B. H. Robert's address ! 6 

Brigham's sermons denouncing Presiden t Polk and the Government 6-7 

Prayers offered up at the dedication of the St. George Temple in 1877.. ..7-8 

Whitney's unfairness respecting the battalion 8-9 

Cause of the Factional Strife 9 

Excerpts which conclusively show the cause, namely: 

President Buchanan's message 10 

President's Hay's message 11-12 

President Celevland's message 12 

President Grant's messages 10-11 

Opinions of Supreme Court of the United States 12 

Opinion of Chief Justice Zane 13 

Message of Governor West to the Utah Legislature 13-14 

Sermons of Brigham Young, John Taylor and Orson Pratt 12-13 

Reference to the Cullom Bill 14, 27, 29 

Cullom Struble bill— Its effect 28 

Mountain Meadow Massacre 15 

Whitney's infamous libel of the Arkansas emigrants 15 

Excerpts from Whitney's recent history, which refute his aspersions 
of the emigrants and show that they were not associated with 
the Missouri Wild Cats and that Lee and Utah Militia officers 
were in command at the massacre 15-16 

Comments on those excerpts 16 



The manner in which the massacre was executed 16 

A revoking spectacle presented by two excerpts from Whitney's 

recent book and comments on same 17 

The evidence at Lee's second trial that the throats of two young 

girls were cut and comment on same 17-18 

Atrocious robbery of the children who were not slaughtered at the 

massacre 22 

The principal actors in the massacre were church and militia officers 21 

Excerpts which show the high character of the Arkansas emi- 
grants 18, 19, 20 . 

The futile attempt to show that there was conjunction of action by 
the emigrants and the Wild Cats was "as dishonest as it was 
despicable" 21 

What rendered the massagre possible 22 

Whitney's malicious falsehoods and comment 22, 23, 24 

Answer to Whitney's aspertive note 24 

Excerpt from his recent book which justifies the publication of my 

Reminiscences 24 

Answer to his assertion that my statements respecting the massacre 

are not reliable 25 

Answer to his assertion that my Reminiscences "abound in coarse 

abuse, venomous vituperation" 25 

Answer to his assertions respecting the Danites 25-26 

Answer to his assertion that my Reminiscences "are largely a rehash 
of stale anti-Mormon stories based upon the testimony of apos- 
tates, jail birds and self-confessed murders" 26 

Answer to his assertion that I am an inveterate Mormon hater 27, 28, 29 

Answer to his assertion that I was the human mainspring of nearly 

every anti-Mormon movement that Utah has known 29 



REVIEW OF WHITNEY'S RECENT HISTORY. 

The following is an excerpt from Whitney's recent history of Utah, 
published in 1916. 

"The slain emigrants at (Mountain Meadow) cannot, of course, speak 
for themselves, either in denial or admission of the truth of these charges. 
But there have always been proxies who were more than willing to assert 
that the travelers conducted themselves with strict propriety, neither com- 
mitting the deeds nor uttering the threats attributed to them. Anti-'Mor- 
mon' writers upon the theme have almost invariably taken this ground, in 
their eagerness to depict the crime in its most hideous aspects. As if it 
were not sufficiently atrocious to suit their purpose, they have painted it 
blacker still, hoping thereby to injure, not the guilty perpetrators, but those 
whom they hate far more — ^the leaders, dead and living, of the 'Mormon' 
Church.* 

The note there referred to is as follows *The latest attempt of this 
kind is by R. N. Baskin of Salt Lake City. As late as the year 1914 — 
practically the present hour — when the ancient bitterness between "Mor- 
mons" and "Gentiles" has so far abated that they can affiliate socially, po- 
litically, and in business, as never before, this Bourbon of the dead past, 
who "learns nothing" and "forgets nothing," drags from the grave and 
holds up to public's view the skeletons of the old blood-curdling sensa- 
tions which all good citizens desire to have buried in oblivion. In the 
face of all the evidence to the contrary, he tries to make it appear that the 
"Mormon" Church and its leading men were responsible for the Mountain 
Meadows Massacre. That crime was committeed in 1857; Mr. Baskin, 
according to his own account, came to Utah in 1865. All he knows about 
the massacre he learned from others after his arrival here; and the same 
is true of more of his so-called "Reminiscences." They are largely a re- 
hash of stale anti-"Mormon" stories, based upon the testimony of apostates, 
jail-birds, and self confessed murderers. He complains of inaccuracies in 
other writings, while his own book fairly bristles with them. It abounds in 
coarse abuse and venomous vituperation. Under pretense of correcting 
alleged mistatements of history, he vents his personal spleen, and pours the 
vitriol of his implacable hatred upon "Mormons" and "Mormonism" in 
general. A special feature is the revival of the musty Munchausenism 
respecting "Danites" or blood-avengers who, according to Baskin, once 
made a business of killing apostates and enemies of the "Mormon" Church. 
It does not seem to have dawned upon his comprehension that if the extrav- 



agant tales he repeats and his frenetic "opinions" founded thereon were 
even half way true, he would never have lived to write any reminiscences. 
Had there been any "Danites" they would have disposed of him long ago. 
The mere fact that this inveterate "Mormon" hater is alive and well ought 
to be accepted as conclusive proof of the non-existence of such an organ- 
ization, past or present. He has lived here fifty years, not only unmolested, 
but treated with kindness and consideration, which he now repays by en- 
deavoring to injure the people who made it possible for him to append to 
his signature as a private citizen. "Ex-Chief Justice of the Supreme Bench 
of Utah." 

That diatribe is indicative of Whitney's chagrin, caused by the ex- 
posure in my Reminiscences of Utah, of his duplicity and falsification of 
history, and impels me to answer each of his groundless aspersions. 

Before doing so, however, I shall review his recent history in con- 
nection with his larger one, and further expose him. 



THE MORMON BATTALION. 

The following is an excerpt from Whitney's recent history of Utah: 
"An agent of the Lattery-day Saints, acting under instructions from Brig- 
ham Young, who had succeeded Joseph Smith at the head of the 'Mor- 
mon' community, went to the City of Washington to solicit government aid 
for his people. No gift of money or of other means was asked — only em- 
ployment in freighting provisions and naval stores to Oregon or other 
points on the Pacific. That agent, Jesse C. Little, represented in his peti- 
tion — presented after the exodus began — that many of his co-religionists 
had already left Illinois for California, and that thousands of others, in 
the United States and in the British Isles, would go there as soon as they 
were able. President Polk received Mr. Little kindly, and promised to do 
what he could do for the hotneless people." 

It is stated in his larger history. Vol. 1, P. 125, that, "Jesse C. Little, 
after his first interview with President Polk addressed to him a petition 
from which the following is quoted: 'We are true-hearted Americans, 
true to our native country, true to its glorious institutions, and we have a 
desire to go under outstretched wings of the American eagle. We would 
disdain to receive assistance from a foreign Power, although it should be 
proffered, unless, our government shall turn us off in this great crisis and 
compel us to be foreigners. If you will assist in this crisis, I hereby 
pledge my honor, as a representative of this people, that the whole body 
will stand ready at your call, and act as one man in the land to which we 



are going, and should our territory be invaded we will hold ourselves 
ready to enter the field of battle.' " 

I have only had access to excerpts from that petition. It 
is clear, however, from the one just quoted, soldiers were asked for and 
not, as alleged by whitney, "a force of teamsters, with wagons, to freight 
stores and supplies." This also appears from what afterwards occurred. 
Whitney states in his large history that "about the middle of June, Elder 
Little left Washington for the West, and was accompanied by Colonel 
Thomas L. Kane, who had been commanded by the President to carry spe- 
cial dispatches to General Kearney at Fort Leavenworth, relative to the 
'Mormon Battalion,' Upon the receipt of those dispatches General 
Kearney detailed Captain Allen to confer with the 'Mormons' at their camp 
in Iowa. Upon arriving there he delivered to the leaders the circular 
which is hereinafter set out. What had previously transpired and that 
circular conclusively show that by the efforts of Mr. Little President Polk 
was induced to grant to the 'Mormons' the privilege of forming a battalion, 
for the purpose, and subject to the conditions contained in that circular, 
which is as follows. "I have come among you, instructed by Col. S. F. 
Kearney, of the U. S. Army, now commanding the Army of the West, to 
visit the Mormon Camp, and to accept the services for twelve months of 
four or five companies of Mormon men who may be willing to serve their 
country for that period in our present war with Mexico; this force to 
unite with the Army of the West at Santa Fe, and be marched thence to 
California, where they will be discharged. 

"They will receive pay and rations and other allowances, such as other 
volunteers or regular soldiers receive, from the day they shall be mustered 
into srvice, and will be entitled to all comforts and benefits of regular 
soldiers of the Army, and when discharged, as contemplated, at California, 
they will be given gratis their arms and accoutrements, with which they 
will be fully equipped at Fort Leavenworth. This is offered to the Mor- 
mon people now — this year — an opportunity of sending a portion of their 
young intelligent men to the ultimate destination of their whole people, 
and entirely at the expense of the United States, and this advance party can 
thus pave the way and look out the land for their brethren to come after 
them. Those of the Mormons who are desirous of serving their country 
on the conditions here enumerated, are requested to meet me without delay 
at their principal camp at the Council Bluffs, whither I am going to consult 
with their principal men, and to receive and organize the force contem- 
plated to be raised. I will receive all healthy, able bodied men, of from 
eighteen to forty-five years of age." 

No coercion was intended. It was optional with the Mormons to raise 
or decline to raise a battalion. Certainly one would not have been formed, 
if Brigham Young had deemed it injurious. It was what he wanted, and 



his followers were grateful for the privilege granted them. This is shown 
by an address delivered by B. H. Roberts hereinafter referred to and the 
following excerpt from the daily journal of Wilford Woodruff. (See his 
Biography, P. 254.) 

"There was a meeting with Colonel Kane, and in it the adoption of cer- 
tain resolutions of respect and gratitude, to President Polk for the steps 
taken by him in arming five hundred men, and furnishing them an oppor- 
tunity to reach the valleys of the Rocky Mountains." 

Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, Heber C. Kimball, and Willard 
Richards were present at that meeting. Subsequently the masses of the 
Mormons in Utah, bitterly denounced the general government because they 
were taught by their ecclesiastical oracles and believed that President Polk 
made a requisition for the Mormon Battalion for the purpose of weaken- 
ing to such an extent the main body of the Mormons on their journey west- 
ward, that they might be destroyed by the savage, and war-like Indians, in- 
habiting the regions through which they were to pass. The address of B. 
H. Roberts which was delivered on July Fourth, 1911, is referred to by 
the Deseret News in an article as follows. "The calling of the Mormon 
Battalion, and the fact that this event was not intended by the general gov- 
ernment to harm the Mormon people, but that it was for their welfare and 
the direct results of a request by the church leaders, was forcibly brought 
out, and that Col. Jesse C. Little, the eastern representative of the Mormon 
church, had asked President Polk to assist the people in their enforced 
western march, and that President Brigham Young stated that it was what 
he had wanted, was shown from letters and journals of many of the early 
church leaders, among them being the journal of John Taylor. The gov- 
ernment intended to help the people in their western march, and the Mor- 
mon people were thus given glorious opportunity to prove their patriotism 
to their country. 

"The journal of President Taylor states that President Young said, 
'We are pleased to show our patriotism for the country we expect to have 
for our future home. I think President Polk has done us a great favor in 
calling us.' Similar facts were read from the biography of President 
Wilford Woodruff and others." 

In September, 1857, Brigham Young, in an address delivered in Salt 
Lake City, and found in Vol. 5, Journal of Discourses, used the following 
language : 

"There cannot be a more damnable, dastardly order than was issued 
by the Administration to this people while they were in an Indian country 
in 1846. Before we left Nauvoo, no less than two United States Senators 
came to receive a pledge from us that we would leave the United States, 
and then while we were doing our best to leave their borders, the poor, 
low, degraded cusses sent a requisition for five hundred of our men to go 



and fight their battles. That was President Polk, and he is now weltering 
in hell with old Zachariah Taylor, where the present administrators will 
soon be, if they do not repent. * * * There is high treason in Wash- 
ington, and if the law was carried out, it would hang up many of them, 
and the very act of James K. Polk in having five hundred of our men, 
while we were making our way out of the country, under an agreement 
forced upon us, would have hung him between the heavens and the earth 
if the laws had been faithfully carried out." 

The Government to assist the balance of the Mormon emigrants to 
purchase and equip trains, paid the Battalion three months advanced wages 
which was turned over to Brigham Young to be used for that purpose. 
Whitney fails to mention that fact, although I stated it on indisputable 
authority in my Reminiscenes. His purpose in failing to do so is apparent. 

The following is an excerpt from a sermon of Brigham Young con- 
tained in the Journal of Discourses, Vol. 2, P. 173. "While fleeing from 
our enemies another test of our fidelity was contrived by them for our 
destruction * * * acquiesced in by the government, consisting of a 
requisition from the War Department, to furnish a battalion of five hun- 
dred to fight for them in the war with Mexico. I ask again, could we 
refrain from considering both the people and the government our deadly 
foes * * * We were required to turn out of our traveling camps, five 
hundred of our most efficient men, and leave the old, the young, the women 
upon the hands of the residue to take care of and support, and in case we 
refused to comply with so unreasonable a requirement, we were to be 
deemed enemies of the Government, and fit for slaughter." 

Those scandalous sermons and numerous others of like import and 
many more in which the government in other respects was bitterly cen- 
sured, delivered by Brigham Young, and many of the apostles, bishops and 
elders of the Mormon church, and also the prayers offered up at the 
dedication of the St. George Temple on the 1st of January, 1877, show 
how malevolenty opposed, the priesthood was to the general government, 
and explains why a large majority of the laymen of the Mormon church 
were unfriendly to it until conditions changed.. The following are ex- 
tracts from prayers offered up at that dedication. 

By Woodruff: 

"We pray thee Our Father in Heaven, in the name of Jesus Christ, 
if it be consistent with Thy will, that Thy servant Brigham may stand in the 
flesh to behold the nation which now occupies the land upon which Thou, 
Lord, has said the Zion of God shall stand in the latter days; that nation 
which shed the blood of the saints and prophets which cry unto God day 
and night for vengance; the nation which is making war with God and 
Chtist; that nation whose sins, wickedness and abominations are ascend- 
ing up before God and the Heavenly Hosts which causes all eternity to be 



pained, and the Heavens to weep like falling rain; Yea, Lord, that he 
may live to see that nation, if it will not repent, broken in pieces like a pot- 
ter's vessel and swept from the earth with a beson of destruction as were 
the Jaredites and Nephites, that the land of Zion may cease to groan under 
the wickedness and abomination of men." 

By Apostle Lorenzo Snow, afterward President of the church: 

"We, thy servants and people, stretch forth our hands unto Thee, 
Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, and in his name we beseech Thee to hear 
the prayer of thy servant Wilford Woodruff, which has been offered up 
in the first room of this house, and answereth it for this house and people," 

By Apostle Brigham Young, Jr.: 

"Hear and answer the prayers offered by thy apostles, Wilford Wood- 
ruff and Lorenzo Snow, that they may penetrate the ears of the Lord of 
Sabaoth." 

Whitney, in his history, after garbling the facts by stating only 
such as suited his purpose of falsifying, asserts that "Such 
was the origin of the call for the Mormon Battalion — five 
himdred able bodied men, to assist the United States in its war with 
Mexico, coming at such a time, and embodying a proposition so dif- 
ferent from the one submitted by Agent Little at Washington, it created at 
first some consternation. A force of teamsters, with wagons, to freight 
stores and supplies was one thing; a battalion of five hundred fighting 
men, quite another. In the midst of an exodus rife with dangers and hard- 
ships, the services of that number of men could ill be spared." 

Whitney here insinuates that the privilege of raising the battalion was 
not granted to assist, but to injure the Mormons. Whitney when writing his 
histories was not ignorant of the facts pertaining to the battalion, and if he 
had been an honest and impartial historian, instead of such an insinuation, 
he would have frankly admitted that the President intended to assist, and 
not to injure the Mormons. He further asserts that "The extreme view 
that the call of this Battalion was a hostile move on the part of the General 
Government, having as its object the weakening of the 'Mormon' com- 
munity, and its probable dispersion or destruction by Indians beyond the 
frontier, finds few if any supporters at the present time." 

Whitney knows that the view above mentioned is false, and was caused 
by the untruthful and outrageous sermons before mentioned, and was gen- 
erally held by the Mormon people, until its falsity was exposed by B. H. 
Roberts in his address and by my Reminiscences of Early Utah. Since 
then it has not been so prevalent, but yet many persons who are not aware 
of that exposure, still believe that the outrage above indicated, by that 
extreme view, was perpetrated by the General Government. The facts 
which I have stated constitute an essential part of the history of Utah. Yet 
Whitney has studiously avoided stating the facts which show the hostility 



of the priesthood to the General Government. That hostility was inten- 
sified by the untruthful and outrageous sermons before mentioned, and 
the irrepressible conflict which began in the early days of Utah, con- 
tinued until the salutary change, which was brought about, mainly by the 
efforts of the Liberal Party, occurred. The fairness of Mr. Roberts is 
shown by his address, and the guile of Whitney by his version of the bat- 
talion. 



CAUSE OF THE FACTIONAL STRIFE. ' 

Whitney in his recent history asserts that "Responsibility for the fac- 
tional strife that tore Utah almost from the hour of her creation, rests 
largely upon the essentially un-American system of sending strangers to 
rule over communities with which they have little or nothing in common." 

The organic act of Utah is the same as the acts by which the numer- 
ous other Territories, in the United States, were organized. In none of 
them did such a conflict, as the one in Utah, occur, but would have arisen 
in all of them had the Mormon Priesthood dominated their local affairs as 
was done by it in Utah.. 

Whitney knew what caused the conflict in the Territory of Utah, and if 
he had been an impartial historian, he would have stated it in his histories. 
He failed to do so because he would have exposed the infamous un-Ameri- 
can system inaugurated and maintained by the Mormon Priesthood until 
the salutary change occurred. 

The attempt of the priesthood as stated in the opinion of the Supreme 
Court of the United States hereafter quoted : "To drive from the Territory 
all who were not connected with them (the Mormon sect) in communion 
and sympathy;" the pernicious acts passed by the Mormon Legislature 
for the purpose of securing immunity to polygamy and other heinious 
crimes like the Mountain Meadow massacre, and rendering impossible the 
execution of any law which interfered with the efforts of the Mormon 
Priesthood to maintain the theocratic rule which prevailed, until the per- 
nicious acts above mentioned was disapproved by Congress, and the 
priesthood was forced by the stringent acts passed by Congress and their 
enforcement to abandon theocratic rule and polygamy, was the sole cause 
of the strife in the Territory. 

Because it is easy for Whitney and others of his class to discredit 
among the masses of the Mormon people, this statement, by simply deny- 
ino^ that it is true the following indisputable evidence upon which it is based 
and proves its correctness, is stated at much greater length than, otherwise, 
would not have been done. 



FROM PRESIDENT BUCHANAN'S ANNUAL MESSAGE. 

"Brigham Young was appointed the first Governor * * * 
"While he has been both Governor and Superintendent of Indian Af- 
fairs, he has been at the same time, the head of the church, * * His 
power has been absolute over both church and State. The people of Utah 
almost exclusively belongs to the church, and believing with a fanatical 
spirit that he is Governor of the Territory by Divine Appointment, they 
obey his commands as if they were direct revelations from Heaven." 



FROM PRESIDENT GRANT'S THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE. 

"In Utah remains a remnant of barbarism repugnant to civilization — 
to dcency, and to the laws of the United States. Neither polygamy nor any 
other violation of existing statutes will be permitted within the Territory of 
the United States. It is not with the religion of the self-styled saints that 
we are now dealing, but with their practices. 

"They will be protected in the worship of God according to the dic- 
tates of their consciences, but they will not be permitted to violate the 
laws under the cloak of religion." 



FROM PRESIDENT GRANT'S SPECIAL MESSAGE OF FEBRUARY 

14, 1873. 

"Evidently it was never intended to vest the Territorial legislature 
with power which would enable it, by creating judicatures of its own or 
increasing the jurisdiction of Courts appointed by Territorial authority, 
* * * to take the administration of the law out of the hands of 
judges appointed by the President or to interfere with their action. After 
several years of unhappy experience it is apparent that in both of these 
respects the Territory of Utah requires special Igislation by Congress. 

"Public sentiment in that territory, produced by circumstances too 
notorious to require further notice, makes it necessary, in my opinion, in 
order to prevent the miscarriage of justice and maintain the supremacy of 
the laws of the United States and the Federal Government, to provide that 
the selection of grand and petit jurors for the district courts, if not under 

10 



the control of Federal officers, shall be placed in the hands of persons en- 
tirely independent of those who are determined not to enforce any act of 
Congress obnoxious to them, and also to pass some act which shall deprive 
the probate courts, or any court created by the Territorial legislature of 
any power to interfere with or impede the action of the court by the United 
States judges. 

"I am convinced that so long as Congress leaves the selection of 
jurors to local authorities it will be futile to make any effort to enforce 
laws not acceptable to a majority of the people of the Territory, or which 
interfere with local prejudices or provide for the punishment of polygamy 
or any of its affiliated vices or crimes." 



FROM THE ANNUAL MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT HAYES. 

"The Mormon sectarian organization which upholds polygamy, has 
the whole power of making and executing the local legislation of the Ter- 
ritory. By its control of the grand and petit juries, it possesses large in- 
fluence over the administration of justice. Exercising, as the heads of 
this sect do, the local political power of the Territory, they are able to 
make effective their hostility to the law of Congress on the subject of polyg- 
amy, and, in fact, do prevent its enforcements. Polygamy will not be 
abolished if the enforcement of the law depends on those who practice and 
uphold the crime. It can only be suppressed by taking away the political 
power of the sect which encourages and sustains it. 

"Religious liberty and the separation of church and state, are among 
elementary ideas of free institutions. To re-establish the interests and 
principles which polygamy and Mormonism have imperiled, and to fully 
re-open to the intelligent and virtuous of all creeds, that part of our domain 
which has been in a great degree closed to general immigration by intoler- 
ant and immoral institutions, it is recommended that the Government of 
the Territory of Utah be re-organized. I recommend that Congress pro- 
vide * * * a government analogous to the provisional government 
established for the territory northwest of the Ohio, by the ordinance of 
1787. If, however, it is deemed best to continue the existing form of local 
government, I recommend that the right to vote, hold office, or sit on juries 
in the Territory of Utah, be confined to those who neither practice, nor 
uphold polygamy. 

"If thorough measures are adopted, it is believed that within a few 
years the evils which now afflict Utah will be eradicated, and the Territory 
will in good time become one of the most prosperous and attractive of the 
new states of the Union." 

11 



(Thorough measures were adopted and the State has become very pros- 
perous. Had they not been adopted, the evils which retarded progress and 
caused the lamentable conflict in the Territory would not have been erad- 
icated and the present salutary conditions would not have occurred. ) 



FROM PRESIDENT CLEVELAND'S ANNUAL MESSAGE. 

"There is no feature of this practice (polygamy) or the system (Theo- 
cracy) that sustains it, which is not opposed to all that is of value in our 
institutions. There should be no relaxation in the firm, but just execution 
of the law now in operation, and I should be glad to approve such other 
discreet legislation as will rid the country of this blot upon its fair fame." 

In the case of the church vs. the United States, 136 U. S. Rep. P. 49, 
in the opinion, it is said that "It is unnecessary here to refer to the past 
history of the sect — to their defiances of the government's authority, to 
their attempt to establish an independent community, to their efforts to 
drive from the Territory all who were not connected with them in com- 
munion and sympathy. The tale is one of patience on the part of the 
American government and people, and of contempt of authority and re- 
sistance to law on the part of the Mormons." 

In Miles vs. the United States, 103 U. S. Rep., it is said: 

"It is made clear by the record that polygamous marriages are so 
celebrated in Utah as to make the proof of polygamy very difficult. They 
are conducted in secret, and the persons by whom they are solemnized are 
under such obligations of secrecy that it is almost impossible to extract 
the facts from them when placed upon the witness stand. If both wives 
are excluded from testifying to the first marriage, as we think they should 
be under the existing rules of evidence, testimony sufficient to convict in a 
prosecution for polygamy in the Territory of Utah is hardly attainable. 
But this is not a consideration by which we can be influenced. We must 
administer the law as we find it. The remedy is with Congress, by enacting 
such a change in the law of evidence in the Territory of Utah as to make 
both wives witnesses on indictments for bigamy. 

Brigham Young, in the Journal of Discourses, vol. 4, Page 77, said: 
"The kingdom is established. It is upon the earth. The kingdom we are 
talking about, preaching about and trying to build up, is the kingdom of 
God on earth, not in the starry heavens, nor in the sun; we are trying to 
establish the kingdom of God on the earth, to which really and properly 
everything pertaining to men, their feelings, their faith, their convictions, 
their desires, and every act of their lives belong, that they may be sealed 

12 



by it spiritually and temporally. We are called upon to establish the 
Kingdom of God literally, just as much as spiritually. 

"There is no man on the earth who can receive the kingdom of God 
in his heart and be governed according to the laws of that kingdom with- 
out being governed and controlled in all temporal matters." 

In Vol. 6, page 23, of said Journal, he further said: 

"The kingdom of God circumscribes the municipal law of the people 
in their outward government." 

Orson Pratt, one of the twelve apostles, and the most celebrated 
scholar of the Mormon church, published in Liverpool, England, a series 
of essays from which the following is an extract: "The Kingdom of God 
is an order of government established by divine authority. It is the only 
legal government that can exist in any part of the universe. All other 
governments are illegal and unauthorized. * * * Any people at- 
tempting to govern themselves by laws of their own notion, and by officers 
of their own appointment are in direct rebellion against the Kingdom of 
God." 

The following is an extract from a sermon of John Taylor, one of the 
twelve apostles, and afterwards the successor of Brigham Young, found 
in the Journal of Discourses, Vol. 5, page 149: "Some people ask, What 
is Priesthood? It is the legitimate rule of God, whether in Heaven or on 
the earth, and it is the only legitimate power that has a right to rule upon 
the earth. * * * Who owns the gold and silver and the cattle on a 
thousand hills? God. Who then has a right to appoint rulers? None 
but Him, or the man he appoints." I could add a large number of other 
quotations of like import from Mormon sermons and publications. 

The supreme court of the Territory, in the case of the United States 
vs. the Church (15 Pac. 467), uses this language in the opinion delivered 
by Chief Justice Zane: * * « * "The people who comprise this or- 
ganization claim to be directed and led by the inspiration that is above all 
human wisdom and subject to a power above all municipal government, 
above all man-made laws These facts belong to history, therefore we have 
taken notice of them." 

Governor West, in a message to the territorial legislature, said: 
"These many voices of the past, replete with anguish, ask us why — of all 
the people in our land of nearly every nationality, of no religion, and 
all religions, with beliefs and creeds as various and numerous almost, as the 
different nations of men — should this people stand singular and alone in 
its woeful history? Can anyone doubt who approaches with unprejudiced 
mind the considerations of the question that the cause is founded in the 
theocracy established and maintained here, in the education of the people 
to believe that God has chosen this people to take possession of the earth 
and dominate and control all other peoples? That through his priesthood 

13 



God governs them immediately, not alone in faith and morals, but in all 
the affairs and relations of life, and that the council of the priesthood is 
the supreme voice of God, and must be obeyed without question. 

"It necessarily follows that perfect ^nd comp^i^te unity has and does 
exist among the Mormon people; an ajjsolute bneness, without division 
and dissent. The unity in the State which comes from a fair discussion 
of public questions, securing by merit conviction of the mind and triumph 
of the right, is desirable and commendable. The unity that is obtained by 
recognizing the supremacy of one man, or set of men, the attributing to 
him or them a knowledge and power not granted to others — derived from 
a superhuman and supreme source, and therefore not to be questioned, but 
must be obeyed — is the establishment of complete absolutism in those hold- 
ing power, and the most abject and servile slavery on those submitting. 
The submission to a government by God through his priesthood, and 
the unity it enforces, brought this people to accept, sustain, and uphold 
polygamy whether practicing it or not, regardless of the sentiment of the 
Christian world, and in defiance to the laws of the land." 

After I had been convinced by investigation that the deplorable con- 
ditions which I have conclusively shown existed in the Territory of Utah, 
could be corrected only by stringent legislation of Congress, I drafted the 
Cullom Bill in 1869, and submitted it to Shelby M. Cullom, who was 
then the chairman of the Territorial committee of the Lower House of 
Congress. 

He introduced the bill and it was passed by the Lower House, but was 
not acted upon by the Senate. It contained all of the recommendations of 
the Presidents herein before mentioned and which was afterward enacted 
by Congress, and were potent facts in causing the chang of conditions in 
Utah. 



LOCAL SELF GOVERNMENT. 

Wliitney further states that "Local self-government — that basic prin- 
cipal of all true Democracy — would doubtless have solved many of the 
problems that vexed our Territorial history." Pish! 

In the light of the past history of the Territory, does any sane per- 
son believe that if unlimited, instead of restricted self-government had 
been granted by the act organizing the Territory and left in force that the 
evil conditions which formerly vexed it, would have been changed, or that 
the Territory would have been admitted into the Union, or that the Mor- 
mon Priesthood would have relinquinshed its theocratic control, or that the 
Liberal Party, which was organized for the sole purpose of eradicating 
those evil conditions, would have disbanded? 

14 




JOHN D. LEE 



MOUNTAIN MEADOW MASSACRE. 

Whitney in his large history, asserted that the Arkansas emigrants, 
"During their entire journey through the Territory they appear to have 
conducted themselves in the most offensive manner. They swaggered 
through the town declaring their intention, as soon as they should have con- 
veyed their women and children to a place of safety, to return with mili- 
tary force sufficient to complete such destruction of the Mormons as the 
United States soldiery might leave unfinished. 

"They averred that the murdered leaders of the Church had received 
their tardy deserts, and gave the impression, if they did not positively 
boast, that in their company, were hands which had been reddened with 
the Prophet's blood. Nor were their offenses confiined to harrowing and 
insulting words. They acted like a band of marauders, preying upon the 
possessions of those through whose country they traveled and committed 
petty indignities upon person and property. Still greater crimes were 
charged to them by the Indians. They were said to have not only wan- 
tonly shot some of the braves, but were known to have poisened beef where 
the savages would likely get it. Several deaths attributed to this cause oc- 
curred among the Indians near Filmore, and numbers of their animals 
perished through drinking water from springs poisoned by the emigrants 
when about breaking camp. * * * Against this company, as stated, 
was laid the fearful charge of injecting poison into the carcass of one of 
their oxen, first having learned that the Indians would be likely to eat the 
meat, and of throwing packages of poison into the springs. In other ways 
they contrived to render themselves obnoxious to the settlers and hateful to 
the natives." 

That is an infamous libel, and in my Reminiscences, having shown it 
to be such, Whitney in his recent history modifies it in some respects. His 
modification, however, is almost, if not quite as libelous, as his former ac- 
cusations of the murdered emigrants. He admits that the Arkansas com- 
pany was mainly made up of respectable and well to do people, but as- 
serts "That along with them went a rough and reckless set of men calling 
themselves 'Missouri Wild Cats.' The latter were a boisterous lot, and 
their conduct was probably one of the chief causes of the calamity that 
came upon them and their betters." His assertion that the Arkansas com- 
pany, which was led by Captain Fancher was associated with the Wild Cat 
company, which was led by Captain Dukes, is refuted by the following 
quotation from his recent history. "The Duke company was delayed by 
trouble with the Indians, one of whom they shot and two of their number 
being wounded in return. This occurred near Beaver, a new settlement 

15 



between Filmore and Parowan. (The Mountain Meadows is eighty miles 
south of Beaver.) Attacked by the red men, these emigrants were com- 
pelled to corral their wagons and seek protection in a rifle pit. Through the 
intervention of Utah Militia officers — 'Mormons'^ — the Indians were placated 
and the emigrants allowed to proceed. Wlien beyond the last of the line of 
settlements, they were again attacked and again saved, the mediators being 
"Mormon" guides and interpreters, who pursuaded the Missourians to buy 
off the savages with their loose stock. These travelers reached the Pa- 
cific Coast in safety. Meanwhile the Arkansas company had met with a 
horrible fate. They numbered about thirty families, aggregating one 
hxmdred and thirty-seven persons, including the Wild Cat Missourians." 

In Whitney's large history, Vol. 2, Page 819-820, it is stated that, "Lee 
had told the Militia that the emigrants were to be killed, and a good many 
of them objected, but did not dare to say anything to those in command." 

Can there be stronger evidence than the foregoing quotations that the 
Militia participated in that horrible massacre, and that the Wild Cats were 
not with nor associated with the Arkansas company on their journey south? 
What a revolting spectacle those statements of Whitney present! Think 
of it! While the disorderly Wild Cats were being protected from the at- 
tacks of the Indians by "Mormon" Militia Officers, thirty families were 
slaughtered — the men by Utah Militiamen, and the women and all the chil- 
dren old enough to expose the fearful deed, by savage Indians placed in 
ambush for that purpose ! 

At the first trial of John D. Lee and after it was shown that Lee had, 
by his treacherous promise of protection, induced the Arkansas emigrants 
to surrender and give up their arms, it was further shown by the evidence 
that a number of Indians were placed in concealment in a clump of cedars 
and oaks, near the road, several hundred yards from the emigrant corral. 
The wounded men and seventeen little children, too young to expose the 
awful crime, were placed in wagons. The women and the other children 
were formed into a separate procession, the men were arranged in rank, 
and by the side of each was placed a Mormon assassin armed with a gun, 
ostensibly to protect the emigrants. 

The wagons containing the wounded men and young children, under 
order moved ahead, the women and other children followed at some dis- 
tance behind the wagons, and the men with their ostensible guards followed 
at a distance of about one hundred yards in the rear. When the women 
and other children reached the ambuscade of the Indians, the signal agreed 
upon was given by Bishop Higbee, who was a major in the Utah Militia, 
and each fiendish Mormon guard shot or cut the throat of the defenseless 
victim he was pretendedly guarding, and the Indians, not more merciless 
than the white skinned Mormons present, rushed from ambush and slaugh- 
tered the helpless women and innocnt children, and the wounded men in 
the wagons were slain. 

16 



Wliitney states in his large history that "The first reports that the In- 
dians, several hundred in number, had attacked and slain some of the emi- 
grants, and that men were needed to guard the remnant and bury the dead. 
It was upon this call to Colonel Haight that John M. Higbee, a major in one 
of the battalions of Militia, on Thursday the 8th, set out with a body of 
men and wagons for the Meadows. * * * * They found an angry 
host of Indians, bent on blood-shed, and outnumbering ten to one of their 
own force. An attempt by the Militia to assist the emigrants would have 
transferred to themselves the Indian attack * * * fhe whites who 
were from Santa Clara County, believed as did Higbee's men, that they 
were summoned there on a mission of meicy to bury the dead and protect 
the survivors, but the fury of the Indians was uncontrollable." 

Whitney makes the following statement in his recent history: 

"In the opening slaughter, seven men were killed, and sixteen 
wounded. The survivors made a brave defense, and held the enemy at 
bay. At this time the only white man known to have been with the In- 
dians was John D. Lee. Subsequently others came upon the scene, lured 
to the Meadows, as they claimed, by the reprsentation that their services 
were needed to bury, the dead. Some of them participated in the butchery 
that followed." 

What a marvelous and unnatural occurrence is here presented. For 
men belonging to a civilized and christian race, lured to the meadows, ac- 
cording to Wliitney's absurd statement, to bury the emigrants who had been 
slain, to participate in the slaughter of their surviving comrades, is most 
revolting. No sensible person who may read the two foregoing statements 
will believe that Whitney believed — that any men were lured to the Mead- 
ows, or that "Higbee's men were summoned there on a mission of mercy 
to bury the dead and protect the survivors," or doubt that they were or- 
dered out to assist in the massacre. Higbee was a Major in the Militia 
and gave the signal agreed upon, which started the slaughter. 

At the second trial of John D. Lee the following was dieted in the ex- 
amination of Jacob Hamblin by William Howard, United States attorney: 
Hamblin was Brigham Young's Indian interpreter. 

Q. Tell what Lee told you. A. Well, he spoke of many little inci- 
dents. 

Q. Mention any of those incidents. A. There were two young ladies 
brought out. 

Q. By whom? A. By an Indian chief at Cedar City, and he asked 
him (Lee) what he should do with them, and the Indian killed one and 
he killed the other. 

Q. Tell the story he told you. A. That is about it. 

Q. Where were these young girls brought from; did he say? A. 
From a thicket of oak brush where they were concealed. 

17 



Q. Tell just what he said about that. A. The Indian killed one and 
he cut the other one's throat, is what he said. 

Q. Who cut the other's throat? A. Mr. Lee. 

Q. Tell us all the details of the conversation and killing. A. Well, 
he said they were all killed, as he supposed; that the chief of Cedar City 
then brought out the young ladies. 

Q. What did he say the chief said to him? A. Asked what should 
be done with them. 

Q. Wliat else did the chief say? A. He said they didn't ought to be 
killed. 

Q. Did the chief say to Lee why they should not be killed? A. Well, 
he said they were pretty and he wanted to save them. 

Q. What did he tell you that he said to the chief? A. That accord- 
ing to the orders [the orders he had] they were too old and big to let live. 

Q. What did he say he told the chief to do? A. The chief shot one 
of them. 

Q. Who killed the other? A. He did, he said. 

Q. How? A. He threw her down and cut her throat. 

Q. Did you ascertain in that conversation, or subsequently, where 
it was they were killed? A. Wlien I got home I asked my Indian boy and 
we went out to where this took place, and we saw two young ladies lying 
there with their throats cut. 

Q. What was the condition of their bodies? A. They were rather 
in a putrefied state; their throats were cut; I didn't look further than that. 

Q. What were their ages? A. Looked about fourteen or fifteen. 

It was shown by the evidence in Lee's first trial that many of the other 
victims had their throats cut, but Whitney in treating of those trials avoided 
mentioning the phenomenal historical occurrences thus disclosed. Wliy 
he did so is very apparent. To have done so, would have too vividly 
brought to mind the endowment cut throat penalties. 

In the Rocky Mountain Saints, it is stated that the "Wild Cats came 
as near to them (the Arkansas Company) in traveling as convenient for 
the grazing of cattle and the purpose of camp at night. Within sight of 
each other they formed their corrals, but while the one resounded with 
vulgar songs, boisterous roaring and tall swearing, in the other there was 
the peace of domestic bliss and conscious rectitude. 

Whitney's reference to the foregoing is as follows: 

"Impartial history paralleled the assertion that the emigrants con- 
ducted themselves properly, with the statement quoted by Mr. Stenhouse 
( a non-'Mormon' when he wrote) that the camp of the 'Wild Cat' Missour- 
ians 'resounded with vulgar songs, boisterous roaring, and tall swearing.' " 

To that garbled statement there is appended the following note: 

"Readers of the Baskin 'Reminiscences' will look in vain therein for 

18 



any allusions to these incidents. Wliile their author quotes copiously from 
the Stenhouse books, he is discreetly silent upon the subject of the 'Mis- 
souri Wild Cats' and their unseemly behavior. The reason is apparent. 
The mention of such things would have marred the picture he was paint- 
ing, in which he desired to exhibit the emigrants in the best light pos- 
sible, and the Mormons in the worst light possible." 

His purpose in garbling Stenhouse's statement is apparent. If he 
had not done so, he would have shown the high character of the Arkansas 
emigrants, and furnished further evidence that there was no association 
between them and the "Wild Cats." 

Of course I did not mention the Wild Cat Missourians, because the 
Arkansas company was a separate and distinct one, and wholly discon- 
nected with the Wild Cats, as the quotation which I have made from Whit- 
ney's recent history respecting the attack of the Indians on the latter and 
the quotation from Stenhouse's Rocky Mountain Saints, conclusively show. 

This being the case and as in my Reminiscences I was vindicating the 
inoffensive Arkansas emigrant against the infamous libel of Whitney, the 
character of the Wild Cats and anything that they may have done was ir- 
relevant. 

I had no other purpose than the refutation of his infamous libel, by 
showing the high character of the emigrants, and that in passing through 
the Territory to the Mountain Meadows, where they were foully betrayed, 
and brutally slaughtered, they acted with propriety. 

Mr. Forney, superintendent of Indian affairs, who was sent by the Gov- 
ernment to gather up thte little children who were not slain, and return 
them to the former homes of their murdered parents, made a close inves- 
tigation into the details of the massacre, and in his official report dated at 
Salt Lake City, 1859, (See Senate Document, No. 42, 36th Congress, First 
session. Page 87-88), said: "Conflicting statements were made to me of 
the behavior of this emigrant company while traveling through the Ter- 
ritory. I have accordingly deemed it a matter of material importance to 
make a strict inquiry to obtain reliable information on this subject. Not 
that bad conduct on their part could in any degree palliate the enormity 
of the crime, or be regarded as any extenuation. My object was common 
justice to the surviving orphans. The result of my inquiries enables me 
to say that the company conducted themselves with propriety. * * » 

"That an emigrant company, as respectable as I believed this was, 
would carry along several pounds of arsenic and strychnine, apparently for 
no other purpose than to posion cattle and Indians, is too improbable to 
be true." 

The high character and previous good conduct of a person charged 
with crime is admitted as material evidence by the courts. That the emi- 
grants were God-fearing and highly respectable and exemplary, was so 

19 



conclusively shown in my "Reminiscences," that Whitney was forced to 
admit in his recent history that the "Arkansas emigrants were mainly made 
up of respectable people." 

James H. Berry, a United States Senator from Arkansas, in a speech 
made by him in the Smoot case, reported in the Congressional Record of 
Feb. 12th, 1907, said: "In 1857, I lived in the County of Carroll, State 
of Arkansas. In the spring of that year there left that county, and two ad- 
joining counties, between a hundred and forty, and a hundred and fifty — 
including men, women and children — emigrants for California. They 
consisted of the best citizens of that country * * * * I was a boy, 
seventeen years old on that day when they (the little children saved) were 
brought to the village Court House. 

"I saw them as they were lined upon th ebenches, and Colonel Mitch- 
ell told the people whose children they were, at least, whose he thought 
they were. I have seen much of life since that day. I have seen war 
along the lines of the border States in all its horror; but no scene in my 
life was ever impressed upon my mind as that which I saw there that day — 
presented by those little children, their fathers, mothers, brothers and sis- 
ters, dead on the far off plains of Utah, and they absolutely without means, 
with no human being to look too." 

Those children were robbed by the fiends who massacred their par- 
ents, and their little brothers and sisters who were old enough to expose the 
horrible deed and Brigham Young, who at the time was governor of the 
Territory, and superintendent of Indian affairs made no attempt to prevent 
the outrage. 

In the Rocky Mountain Saints it is stated : 

"One of their number (the Arkansas emigrants) had been a Metho- 
dist preacher, and probably most of the adults were members of that de- 
nomination. They were moral in language and conduct, and united regu- 
larly in morning and evening prayers. On Sunday they did not travel ,but 
observed it as a day of sacred rest for man and beast. At the appointed 
hour of service, this brother-preacher assembled his fellow travelers in 
a large tent, which served as a meeting house within their wagon circled 
camp, for the usual religious exercises." 

Bancroft, in his history of Utah, page 550, states: 

"It was Saturday evening when the Arkansas families encamped at the 
Mountain Meadows. On the Sabbath day they rested, and at the usual 
hour, one of them conducted divine service in a large tent, as had been 
their custom through their journey." 

It is clear that there was no conjunction of action of those companies 
and Whitney's futile attempt to show that there was, in order to bolster 
up his infamous slander of the Arkansas emigrants is a glaring outrage, 
and he has done it in a way that exposes his self stultification. 

20 



Whitney further slates in his recent history that: 

"According to the testimony of 'Mormons' and Non-'Mormons' alike 
(the Arkansas emigrants) were far from being the white souled saints that 
a certain writer would have tlie public believe. Those Wild Missourians 
were quite capable of making the blood thirsty threats attributed to them, 
and of carrying out those threats, as 'Mormon' history amply shows. And 
the spirit they manifested — they being the aggressive, dominant element 
in the company — would naturally be regarded by the settlers, however 
mistakenly as the spirit of the entire camp. It is quite conceivable, too, 
that some of the Arkansas emigrants were of the same mood, and that they 
joined with the Missourians in their tantalizing talk." 

That a company made up of thirty families, as God-fearing, prayerful 
and highly respectable as I have shown the Arkansas Emigrants to have 
been, and in which there were many women, young girls in their teens and 
small children, were associated with such a disorderly company as the 
Wild Cats, and acted in concert with them in perpetrating the outrages 
charged by Whitney, is too extraordinary and improbable to admit of be- 
lief. And, most certainly will not be given credence on the uncorrobor- 
ated statement of a historian as reckless and unscrupulous as Whitney has 
shown himself to be. 

It is clear that there was no conjunction of action of those companies, 
and Whitney's futile attempt to show that there was, in order to bolster 
up his infamous slander of the Arkansas emigrants is as "dishonorable, 
as it is despicable." 

Isaac C. Haight was president of the Parowan stake of Zion, within 
which were Cedar City and Mountain Meadows. He was also Colonel in 
the Territorial Militia of which Brigham Young was the commander-in- 
chief, and Daniel H. Wells, was Lieutenant General. John M. Higbee was 
first counselor to president Haight, and also Major in the Militia. Not- 
withstanding, Haight and Higbee, were among the prime movers of the 
massacre. Neither of them were court martialed or removed from the 
Militia. According to Whitney — Higbee and Lee, were not excommuni- 
cated from the church until thirteen years after the massacre. None of 
the other fifty-two Mormon participants were ever disciplined by the 
church. William H. Dame and Klingensmith, who were Mormon bishops 
and Haight and Higbee, and some others of less prominence, were indicted 
with Lee. They fled to places of concealment and all of them except 
Klingensmith, who gave himself up and testified in Lee's first trial, were 
shielded from arrest by the inhabitants in the extreme southern part of the 
Territory. After a lapse of considerable time the hidden retreat of John D. 
Lee, was disclosed to a deputy United States marshall, and he was arrested. 
The peace officers were unable to arrest any of the others who were indicted 
with Lee. They remained in concealment, and according to Whitney's 

21 



statement died in exile. The Arkansas company must have had consider- 
able money. What became of it has never been disclosed. The other 
property of the company was very valuable. Some of the cattle were 
branded with the church brand. Most of the other property was sold at 
auction in Cedar City, under the direction of President Haight. Much of 
that which was sold was paid for in grain, which was put in the church 
tithing house granary. Common humanity required that that property 
should have been sold by the civil officers of the Territory, and the pro- 
ceeds which would have amounted to many thousands of dollars used for 
the nurture and education of the little children that were not slaughtered. 
Instead of this, they were robbed by the high Mormon official at Cedar 
City who planned the massacre and actively participated in the slaughter 
of the parents of those helpless children. That robbery is secondary in 
perfidy to the Massacre itself. Notwithstanding that unconscionable rob- 
bery is an important fact in the history of the crime, Whitney studiously 
avoids making any reference to it. His failure to do so is apparent. I 
have never, on account of the crime, denounced or held accountable any 
persons except those whom the evidence proved were either principal act- 
ors or accessories before or after the fact, in the commission of that hor- 
rible crime. 

I have frequently been asked the question — What made the perpetra- 
tion of such a crime by a civilized and Christion race possible? My 
answer was and is now — The cut throat sermons of Brigham Young and 
other high officials of the Mormon church, quoted in my Reminiscences, 
from the Mormon Journals of Discourses, preached a short time before 
the Massacre, and the covenants of unquestioned obedience to the priest- 
hood, and avengement of the blood of the prophets entered into in the 
Mormon endowment house, under death penalties, engendered the fiendish 
and fanatical spirit displayed by the perpetrators of that crime and ren- 
dered its execution possible. 



THE REYNOLDS CASE. 

Whitney in his large history asserts that William Carey, United States 
District Attorney, for the purpose of testing the constitutionality of the 
anti-polygamy law, "Stipulated that the defendant in the case should pro- 
duce the evidence for his own indictment and conviction, and it was gen- 
erally understood that the infliction of punishment in this instance would 
be waived. Only the first half of the arrangement was realized. The de- 
fendant in the test case, George Reynolds, supplied the evidence upon 
which he was convicted, but his action did not shield him from pun- 
ishment." 

22 



There was not the slightest foundation for that statement. It was a 
malicious falsehood framed in Whitney's mind, which I apprehend is 
disordered. His purpose evidently was, as in many other cases, to dis- 
credit the Federal officers who were executing the law, and to make it ap- 
pear that a glaring outrage had been perpetrated on George Reynolds. 

To besmirch me, also, he wrongfully asserted that I was Carey's 
assistant in the trial. If any such arrangement had been made the severe 
sentence passed upon Reynolds would have been a glaring outrage upon 
him, and Mr. Carey's action in the matter would have been dishonorable 
in the extreme. 

In Whitney's recent history, his version of that celebrated Reynolds 
case, shows that his former one was maliciously false. He is careful how- 
ever, in that later version, to omit stating the glaring perjury which was 
committed by a high church official, one of the defendant's witnesses, and 
which is fully shown in my Reminiscences. 



ANOTHER OF WHITNEY'S MALICIOUS FALSEHOODS. 

In his recent history, he asserts that, "As a result of the harsh enforce- 
ment of the law, the whole community was terrorized. Special government 
funds having been provided for the purpose, a large force of deputy 
marshals was employed and a system of espionage inaugurated. "Hunt- 
ing cohabs" became a lucrative employment. Paid informers men and 
women, were set to work to ferret out offenses punishable under the re- 
cently enacted Congressional legislation. Some of these assumed the 
role of peddlers or of tramps, imposing upon the good feelings of those 
whom they sought to betray. Others passed themselves off as tourists in- 
tent upon gathering information respecting the country and its resources. 
Children going to, or returning from school were stopped by strangers 
upon the street and interrogated concerning the relations and acts of their 
parents. At night dark forms prowled around people's premises, peering 
ing into windows or watching for the opening of doors, to catch glimpses 
of persons supposed to be inside. More than one of the hirelings thrust 
themselves into sick rooms and women's bed chambers, rousing the sleep- 
ers, by pulling the bed clothes from off them. If admittance was refused, 
houses would be broken into. Delicate and refined women, about to be- 
come mothers, or with infants in arms, were awakened at unseemly hours 
and conveyed long distances through the night, to be arraigned before 
United States Commissioners. Male fugitives, if they did not immediately 
surrender when commanded, were fired upon. All these statements are 

23 



susceptible of proof; many of them being referred to in public documents 
and newspapers of that period." 

The same assertion was made in his large history, and is answered 
by Charles S. Varian, who at that time was assistant United States District 
Attorney. In a chapter written by him and attached to my Reminiscences 
is the following: "The historian gives no particulars — and it is certain that 
he would have given names, dates, and details, if he were able to do so. 
Such conduct on the part of Government officers would have been generally 
denounced and promptly punished — had there been occasion. The entire 
statement is false." 

At that time Judge Zane was on the bench, and William H. Dickson 
was United States District Attorney, he and his deputy, Mr. Varian, were 
in charge of the prosecutions in the district courts of the Territory. Had 
any such outrages been perpretated, as Whitney alleges were "referred to 
in public documents and newspapers of that period," during the time they 
were being committed, they would have come to the knowledge of Judge 
Zane, the other District Judges, and those prosecuting officers, and would, 
as every unbiased person who is acquainted with the high characters of 
those Judges, and prosecuting officers, knows that, such outrages would 
have been immediately stopped, and the perpetrators punished. I was in 
Salt Lake City at that time, and was a close observer of the current events — 
especially of the efforts being made to execute the Edmunds law of 1882. If 
any such outrages had been committed and noticed in the Journals and 
newspapers I would have heard of them, but I never did! I am not as 
modest as Mr. Varian and possitively assert that that assertion of Whit- 
ney's is one of his numerous malicious falsehoods — framed in his own dis- 
ordered brain, to discredit the federal officers who faithfully execut- 
ed the Edmunds law, and also to make it appear, that at that time, the Mor- 
mons were being persecuted. 



ANSWER TO WHITNEY'S NOTE. 

He censures me for stating in my Reminiscenes, historical facts 
which he asserts, "all good citizens desire to have buried in oblivion." I 
am vindicated by Whitney himself in the following excerpt from his re- 
cent book. "The narration of the unpleasant facts recorded in this vol- 
ume is not intended to stir up bitter memories or perpetuate senseless 
feuds and differences. Such events could never happen again. No present 
day person or class is held responsible for them, and by gones, should be 
treated as bygones. Nevertheless, happen they did — the page of history 
condemns them — and no record of those times would be complete if they 
were omitted. This is the reason for the reproduction here." 

24 



My Reminiscences contain many historical facts which are very un- 
pleasant to Whitney and his class, "but happen they did" and no record of 
the times of their occurrence "would be compete if they were omitted." 
Because they were omitted by Whitney and for the further reasons stated in 
the preface to my Reminiscenes which follows. I stated them: "The glaring 
false statements in Whitney's history of Utah, respecting the nature 
and effect of certain occurrences which have in a great part gone to make 
up the history of Utah, together with his malignment of the motives of 
myself and other Gentiles who in the past opposed the peculiar theocratic 
and anti-American system established and maintained in Utah, while it was 
a Territory by the high priesthood of the 'Mormon' church, are the reasons 
for the writing of these Reminiscences of my connection with the conflict 
waged for many years between Moi^mons and Gentile. s * * * After 
the careful scrutiny of Whitney's history, I deemed it due the men, many of 
whom were Federal officials and few of whom are yet living and who 
have been so wantonly besmirched by him to correct, at least, some of his 
erroneous assertions and covert insinuations." 

It is insinuated in that note that my statements respecting the massacre 
is not reliable, because I came to the Territory after that crime was com- 
mitted, and that all I know about it was learned from others. It is true 
that before the first trial of Lee, at which I assissted the United States Dis- 
trict Attorney, all that I had previously learned was from the unsworn 
statements of others, and printed reports, but at that trial I learned the 
facts from the testimony of the witnesses examined, several of whom par- 
ticipated in the massacre and revealed the crime in all of its horrible 
details. 

In my Reminiscences and in this review, I have asserted that certain 
atrocious statements by Whitney are "as dishonest as they are despicable" 
— a derogatory expression which he himself without the slightest justifi- 
cation applied in his large history to the action of Judge McKean and my- 
self. In every instance that I used that, and other derogatory expres- 
sions, the text upon which they were predicated, justify their use. Those 
justifiable expressions are what caused Whitney to assert in that note that 
my Reminiscences "abound in coarse abuse and venomous vituperation.' 

He also asserts that "a special feature (of my Reminiscences) is the 
a revival of the musty Munchausenism respecting "Danites" and that had 
there been any Danites they would have disposed of me long ago." The 
fact that I escaped assassination does not disapprove the former existence 
of such an organization, for the following reasons. The assassination of 
Brassfield and Doctor Robinson aroused the indignation of the Nation and 
was bitterly denounced by the news papers. 

In 1866, General Sherman, then commander of the Department which 
included Utah, telegraphed Brigham Young that "he hoped to hear of 

25 



no more murders; that he was bound to give protection to all citizens and 
that murderers must be punished; that the country was full of tried and 
experienced soldiers which would be pleased to avenge any wrong com- 
mitted against any American citzen." It is a significant fact that since 
the reception of that telegram, and the indignation expressed throughout 
the country that no similar assassinations have occurred in the Territory. 

Those significant occurrences evidently, were not misunderstood by 
Brigham Young, and they put a stop to the activities of the Danites. Be- 
sides this — I had done nothing to displease the priesthood before draught- 
ing the Cullom bill in the latter part of the winter of 1869, and procuring 
its introduction in Congress, and until the discovery of the celebrated 
Emma mine, and the Union Pacific Railroad which reached Ogden, in 
March 1869, had brought many gentiles to the Territory who had joined 
the Liberal Party which had been formed to ablish the despotic reign of 
the theocratic priesthood which prevailed in the Territory, and to establish 
democratic rule instead thereof. Many of the members of that party 
were as actively striving to bring about that result as myself. My assassin- 
ation therefore would have strengthened the Liberal cause and intensified 
the conflict. I am sure that none of the early apostates now living think 
that my assertion that there formerly existed in the Territory the Danite 
organization is Munchauserin. 

William S. Gobde, who had apostatized from the "Mormon" church, 
and started what is known as the Gobdeite movement, had a house to rent. 
As I was desirous of renting one, I went with him to look at it. His 
bedroom window on the ground floor was guarded with strong iron bars. 
When he noticed that they attracted my attention, he said, "Those bars 
should recommend this house to you!" I replied — "they express more 
forcibly than words can do, that you have jeopardized your life by apos- 
tacy and that you are guarding against murderous assaults by the Danites." 
"Yes," said he, "that is the reason why I barred that window." 

Whitney further asserts that my Reminiscences "are largely a rehash 
of stale anti-Mormon stories, based upon the testimony of apostates, jail 
birds, and self-confessed murderers," 

Apostacy from the Mormon church does not discredit the apostate by 
a long shot. 

It is true I gained much important information from Bill Hickman and 
a number of witnesses who testified that they participated in the Mountain 
Meadows Massacre, but was forced to participate by their church leaders 
and Militia officers. 

Hickman was one of the chief Danites, and at the time he and his as- 
sociate Danites committed their crimes, they were members, in good stand- 
ing, of the Mormon Church. 

I have on more than one occasion seen Porter Rockwell, a notorious 

26 








BILL HICKMAN 



Danite and drunkard partake of the Sacrament with other members of the 
Mormon church. 

None of the fifty-two Mormons who participated in the Massacre, ex- 
cept President Haight, John D. Lee and Klingensmith, were excommuni- 
cated or disfellowshiped by the church. 

The testimony of criminals is entitled to credence when corrobor- 
ated by creditable witnesses and circumstances. 

My Reminiscences contain no doubtful facts. 

Any unbiased person who reads the evidence and the quotations 
from the sermons of Orson Hyde and Brigham Young contained in the 
chapter of my Reminiscences on the subject of the Danites will not doubt 
that such an organization existed and was active in the earlier days of the 
Territory. 

Whitney accuses me of being an "inveterate Mormon hater." He has 
cast on me, in his large history many other groundless aspersions. If 
this one were true, (he knows that it is not), I would have few, if any. 
Mormon friends. I have, however, at the present time the friendship and 
respect of a host of "Mormons." I am now, and ever have been, a friend 
of the masses of the people of the Territory, as shown by my political 
career. 

Soon after settling in Salt Lake City, in 1865, I became firmly con- 
vinced that the irrepressible conflict caused by the prevalence of polygamy 
and the inununity which had been given to it by Territorial legislation 
and the im-American system established by the theocratic priesthood, could 
only be ended by congressional legislation, and that the interests of both 
the Gentiles and Mormons demanded its termination. Until this was done, 
I knew that the peace of the Territory would continue to be disturbed and 
the existing bitterness would as the strife continued, become more intense. 
To assist in the accomplishment of that desirable and salutary end, in 
1869, I drew and procurred its introduction in Congress, the Cullom Bill. 
Some Gentiles thought its provisions were too severe and opposed it. The 
evils it sought to eradicate were so radical, deep seatd, and strongly pro- 
tected by the measures of the Territorial Legislature, and the influence of 

the priesthood that no provisions less stringent than the Cullom Bill 
would have had much if any, effect. The lapse of time, their enactment 
by Congress, and their enforcement has shown the wisdom and necessity of 
those provisions. When George Q. Cannon and I were opposing candi- 
dates for the office of Territorial delegate to Congress, because I was ad- 
vocating the Cullom Bill, he charged me with being an enemy of the 
Mormon community. I replied to that false charge, "My alien antagonist 
(George Q. Cannon) has stated to the Mormon community that I am their 
worst enemy. I assure the Mormon people I am not their enemy, but 
their friend. I claim no rights or privileges for myself, as an American 

27 



citizen, which I do not accord to my fellow citizens. In common with 
the Liberal party I desire the establishment of the supremacy of law, freed- 
om of thought, freedom of speech and freedom of action in Utah, as it 
exists in other States and Territories of the Union; the enactment of an 
election law which will insure honest elections and enable every man, 
however poor or dependant he may be, to go to the polls and freely deposit 
his ballot for whomsoever he may choose, without the fear of the infliction 
of ecclesiastical penalties; to establish a system under which every one 
may freely and fully exercise his own individuality, choose his own busi- 
ness, politcal and social relations, without the consent of any bigoted 
apostle, bishop or teacher. A system under which every man will have 
an equal chance with every other man — an equal chance by personal 
worth or dint of honest effort to attain the highest social, political, and 
business advancement without having to lay his manhood down at the foot 
of the priesthood, or kiss the great toe of some pretended prophet. A 
system under which the people, and not the church, may frely choose their 
own rulers, and religious bigotry cease to be an essential requisite to the 
attainment of office or business patronage. A system which will put an 
end to monopolies and church artistocracy, restore the natural laws of 
trade and social intercourse, and allow without question every man to 
manage his own affairs, hold the title to his own property, and run the 
course of life without weight upon his shoulders." 

As the Mormon priesthood after the stringent legislation by Congress 
continued to be recalcitrant, and after the act of the Idaho Territorial leg- 
islature, which was introduced by Col. Wall of this city, disfranchising 
all polygamists, and all who belonged to or contributed to the support of 
any organization which sanctioned polygamy etc., was held to be vailid by 
the Supreme Court of the United States, I drew a similar bill and pro- 
cured its introduction in the United States Senate by Senator Cullom, and 
by Mr. Stuble in the House. It is known as (The Cullom Stuble Bill.) 

After it had been discussed by Governor West and my self before the 
committee on Territories of which Mr. Strubble was chairman, and had 
been reported favorably to the House, Frank J. Cannon, was sent from 
Washington to Salt Lake City by his father, George Q. Cannon, to inform 
President Woodruff that unless something was speedily done by the 
priesthood to stop polygamy, that that bill would pass. 

That information forced President Woodruff to issue the manifesto, 
in which he recommended his followers to obey the laws of the land. The 
masses of the Mormon people at an annual Conference of the church, by 
ratifying the Manifesto, promised to comply with President Woodruff's 
request. This was all that the Nation had demanded, and all that I, in 
common with the Liberal party, had striven for more than twenty years to 
bring about. 

28 



The manifesto, its ratification by the people, and the promise of the 
priesthood to relinquish theocratic control of political affairs ended the 
conflict and paved the way for admission of the Territory into the Union, 
and brought about the glorious conditions which now exist. The only 
thing that the Mormons did in the long contest between the Liberal, and 
the Mormon Party to bring about that salutary change, was to yield to the 
just demands of the Government and the Liberal party, to come within 
the law — and sustain a Republican system instead of a theocratic one. 

In that long contest, I openly, and above board honestly and untiringly 
strove to Americanize theocratic Utah; because I knew that that was indis- 
pensably necessary to stop the lamentable conflict and establish peace in 
the distracted Territory. No one can be more highly gratified at the glor- 
ious results which have followed, than I am myself. Nor do I believe that 
any persons except some fanatical polygamists like Whitney, regards 
me as a former enemy or at present, "a Mormon hater." Whitney has 
made so many false statements and aspersions of honorable and faithful 
officials, and other individuals, and has omitted to state so many historical 
facts, that it would take more time to treat of them, than I can devote to 
the subject. I have, however, disclosed enough of them to show that his 
histories are not entitled to credence, nor their author to respect. It is 
stated in the Deseret News that his recent history was written for use in the 
public schools. Its use there would be a glaring outrage which I hope will 
not be permitted. 

Whitney also asserts that "the real and avowed author of the Cullom 
Bill was Robert N. Baskin, of Salt Lake City, that human mainspring of 
nearly every anti-Mormon movement that Utah has known." Yes, that is 
true, and I am very proud of the fact, because what I did in that regard 
materially assisted in stopping the former bitter conflict and brought about 
conditions different from the evil ones which formerly existed in Utah 
when it was a Territory, and which, it was evident to me, the interest of the 
Mormons and Gentiles, alike, demanded, but could not, possibly, be at- 
tained except by the establishment of American Republic rule in place of 
the Theocratic rule of the Mormon Priesthood. 

The change to new conditions brought about is an unqualified bless- 
ing, and I again assert that no one can be more highly gratified on account 
of its' occurance than I am myself.^ 

Though not a prophet, I have been profitable to the masses of the 
Mormon people. 



29 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



017 055 992 7 



L«KESIOB PTO. CO. SALT LAKE 



